valley

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

A New Face for Myspace?

Hello to you too.

A few months ago (or at least long enough that I had completely forgotten about) I signed up for an invite to the new Myspace. I'd heard stuff about it and the major redesign that was going on, and after seeing the preview/tour video, I have to say I was sufficiently intrigued. Yesterday my interest was revived when that requested invite popped up in my inbox and I started poking around.

Let me say this first: the way the whole site is designed is very slick and I'm totally in love with it. Some of it, I admit, isn't immediately intuitive, but as a whole I appreciate the willingness to travel off the beaten path. One design feature that becomes immediately noticed is the fact that rather than scrolling up and down, you scroll left and right, with elements sliding in a way that's mildly reminiscent of Windows (Phone) 8. Even searching for songs/bands/people is a beautiful experience:

Hmm, I'm feeling me some Keane.

Another thing that really has me interested is the focus on music that permeates the entire site. You pick a "Top 8" list of songs, reminiscent of your top 8 (16?) friends in the old Myspace, as well as a Profile Song to showcase that one song you're completely in love with. And that's just the beginning. Always on the bottom of the page is the music player. Want to listen to a band you're mildly interested in? Play their radio, and skip around through songs with impunity. That's right, you can skip around through individual songs. For me, this is a feature that isn't offered enough in online radios and the such. I have music ADD, if the beginning isn't working for me I want to be able to skip around through the song to make sure that it's not going to pick up before giving up on the song. Additionally, you can make your own playlists/mixtapes and share them with your friends.

The only thing I can't say too much about is the social aspect of Myspace. I signed up for an invite on a whim and didn't really tell any of my friends about it (I suppose the dark stain on the name "Myspace" still remains, and often brings up memories of glittery, cluttered profiles and kitshy 2000's site design), so I don' have any friends to really play around with the social side of the site. Is it a Facebook competitor? Not now, at least. This is a social site with a heavy music leaning; I don't really see Facebook staples like casual gaming coming onto the site. And I'm very okay with that because even I, a professed Sims Social addict, would rather not have the beautiful site design cluttered with game requests.

All in all I'm willing to see what's in store with this new Myspace. It's like it's Pandora, 8tracks and Facebook all melted together and poured into a Windows (Phone) 8 mold. A winning combination or just another, prettier, rehash. I guess time will tell.

If you have an account, feel free to hit me up. I can always use a couple of friends :)